My new white dove is doing really well. What's the best things to feed him?

by christina
(victoria, australia)

Hello, how are you going? :-) I wrote recently about my new white dove who came to me from an animal shelter. He was abused terribly by his previous owners. He has been here for 12 days now and he is doing so very well :-)

When he first came he was shaking very much and he was skinny and dirty and he didn't preen himself at all the shelter said as they said he was too depressed to preen himself. But after the first 10 minutes that I held him and gave him a very gentle hug and a pat, he stopped shaking and relaxed and he started to preen himself after about 15 minutes :-)

Evey day he eats lots of birdseed, and he drinks water, and he has a bath. He is getting bigger in weight and whiter every day. His head used to hardly have any feathers on it and you could see his pink scalp through it, but now it is starting to get covered in white again.

He walks up to us (me and my family) and he sits with us, and him and me go in the backyard with all the other pigeons in the backyard who visit our backyard every day and he plays with them and sunbakes with them too,and then they all fly around together for a while, and then he comes back to me. He always comes back to me :-)

I was wondering what else I should feed him besides this good quality bird seed that I buy, which is fine grains, as I read doves need fine grains. Thanks heaps for your time, I do appreciate it a lot.

Comments for My new white dove is doing really well. What's the best things to feed him?

It would be good to supplement his diet with pellets, crumbles, or other formulated diet. The seeds are good, but are not complete. You can also offer him fresh greens, and grated vegetables, and other whole grains. Doves need to eat grit, but if you have him outside daily, he can get that from his foraging. Allowing him flight exercise is very healthy.

It sounds like you have a really wonderful companion. Let me know if I can help more.

Dr B

Apr 28, 2010

My new white dove is doing really well. What's the best things to feed him?by: Linda

Hi again, and so very glad your dove is doing well!!! What a thrill it must be to see him change for the better every day and week, and you are the love of his life, so take good care of him. If you have not already done so, please take him to an Avian (bird) Vet because it is likely he has some kind of bacterial infection and maybe a parasite or two from being neglected and all. This first trip to the Avian is VERY IMPORTANT FOR HIS HEALTH NOW AND IN THE FUTURE, SO PLEASE DO NOT DELAY. MAKE SURE HE IS SEEN BY AN AVIAN VET AND NOT A DOG OR CAT VET AS THEY ARE NOT LICENSED TO TREAT BIRDS.

As for foods, here is a link to a site I found on the internet, and there are others as well. Here is this one:

http://www.ideazoo.com/amy/doves.cfm

I did a search on Feeding Doves and this came up plus a number of others if you wish to learn all you can about your beautiful dove. Take the very best care of him as you are his hero, and he is already bonded with you. This makes you a very Blessed and Fortunate person as it usually takes birds a long time to trust again after they have been abused and neglected. Yours is such a wonderful story, and thank you so much for sending it to us. Once your bird has all his/her feathers, post a picture out here. Have someone take a pix of you and bird if you can as that would be a real treasure for us.